Friday, May 28, 2010

So, I just ended my first week working in the city. The city I am referring to is Los Angeles. Living in South Orange County, the travel distance to where I am now working is about 50 miles one way. Yikes! What have I gotten myself into??!!

My alarm went off at 4:55am on Monday morning. Ugh. Turned on the coffee (which was prepared the night before) and started getting ready. Since I am carpooling with my roommate, we decided that we would each drive a week at a time. This was my roommates' week to drive. We left the house a few minutes before 6am. We were able to take the carpool lane and ended up getting to work by 7:15. We have to park in a parking structure a few blocks from where we work. Of course, we were smart and wore reasonable shoes in and then changed to our heels once inside the employee entrance. Being that she starts work at 7:45 and I didn't have to be in orientation until 8:30, we had some free time. So, she gave me a tour of the property.

The drive home was not so bad. We left a little late (around 6pm). It took about 1 1/2 hours to get home. All in all, the drives were not as long as I had thought. So I am good with it. The rest of the week basically went the same. It's been taking about 1 hour 15 min to get in to work and about 1 1/2 hours to get home. However, we've been working a lot of overtime which means we were not getting home until almost 8. Which makes for very long days. So basically, my only gripe for right now is that I feel very very tired!

Like I said in a previous post. I work in the new area known as LA LIVE. The area includes the Staples Center, Nokia Theatre, restaurants, bars and 2 hotels. If you live in the LA/OC areas and listen to the radio or watch the news, this is the new hotspot for entertainment. This week was no exception. American Idol and Lakers festivities were going on all week. I even saw the top 2 contestants from American Idol! First I saw Lee DeWyze. He was on the balcony of the Nokia Theatre overlooking our employee entrance. Just chillin there. It was hilarious. Then the next morning while walking in, we saw Lee and Crystal doing interviews outside in the quad area. If you watch the show, you know that the finale was filmed at Nokia. I was inside working while the red carpet was going on but I wish I would have taken a 10 min break to go get Starbucks or something so I could see part of the red carpet show. :-) If you know me, you know I love Kelly Clarkson. I had no idea she was supposed to be on the finale. I would have loved to see her. And all of the other celebrities that were there. So basically what I'm saying is it was an exciting week in the area. Walking to and from my car was the best people watching!

Now that my week is over and I've had time to see friends, family and now finally relaxing on this Memorial Day holiday, I am almost ready for the new week to begin.

A few tips for commuting to work.

Lots of good music.

Coffee for the ride

Snack for the ride home

Comfy shoes for the drive and walk in

Water bottle (the reusable kind!)

A picture of LA LIVE from my walk in. At the bottom right, you can see them setting up the press tent for American Idol.

I would take more pictures, but my roommate gets embarrased when I do. Hahaha.

I'm coming up on my last week of work in Newport Beach! I had to take a few pictures yesterday of a set up we had for a group that was in-house, so I had my camera. I snapped this picture of our atrium. They had just switched out the flowers on the fountain and I LOVE the colors of these Hydrangeas! Just thought I'd share!

It's going to be a beautiful Saturday here in Orange County. Well I think it is. I didn't actually check the weather. haha. I'm just assuming and hoping. ;-) I will be heading down to Newport Beach with some friends and our bikes. We are going to ride up to Huntington Beach. If I take any pictures, I will do a post!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

This year I am starting with little pear shaped tomatoes, basil, rosemary, serrano peppers and a small strawberry plant.

My tomatoes are doing well. The plant has grown very tall since I bought it. I have tiny little green tomatoes. None of them are ripe yet. However, there are tons of flowers which means I will have tons of tomatoes! I decided on the tiny tomatoes instead of the big Roma tomatoes like last year. These ones will be good in salads!

All of the little yellow flowers will be tomatoes!

Up close and personal with my future tomatoes.

My Serrano Peppers have just sprouted little flower like pods that I'm assuming will either be a flower or just turn directly into the pepper. I have not grown Serrano's before so I'm not quite sure! But I just noticed the sprouts the other day and got excited. :-)

Can you see where my little peppers will be growing??

My Strawberry plant has about 3 almost ripe berries and about 15 flowers or berries in different stages. I got a small plant since I haven't had much luck with strawberries. I'm excited to try them!

Strawberries!

I love to cook with my Basil and my Rosemary. Love having fresh herbs! And you definitely save money cooking with your own herbs.

I decided to try to plant sweet peas this year too. These are flowers that smell delicious! I am trying to grow them from seeds. I never have much luck with seeds so hopefully this will work! I bought a little starter tray. The tray comes with little dirt pellets. You water the pellets and add 1 seed to each pellet. Then put the lid on the tray. You keep it inside. Once they sprout, you can leave the lid off and put it in more direct light and keep watering it. Once you have little plants, you can transplant them to a pot outside. My seeds have sprouted and I am at the stage where I can leave the lid off. I'm excited that they even sprouted! We'll see how it all works. Hopefully I will have tons of flowers soon.

My sweet pea sprouts! This picture was last weekend. They are now about 3 inches high!

Not sure what else I'm going to plant this year. Since I live in a condo, space is limited and everything I grow needs to be in pots. Also, my huge balcony does not get direct sun so I have to have my pots outside my front door on the ledge. Needless to say, there is limited space!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

So, I know this is a travel blog and all.....but this somewhat has to do with "traveling". I just accepted a new job that will have me commuting from Orange County, all the way to Los Angeles daily!! If you live in either of these two areas, you know this is practically a whole new world. Not to mention, I live in South OC. Which means my commute will be approximately 1 1/2 hours each way. This is mainly because of traffic. Mapquest tells me it's only supposed to take 1 hour. Riggggghhhht.

I am debating whether to carpool or take the train. There is a train stop near my house. The train may cost more, but it may be better than the wear and tear on my precious little Nissan Versa! I may try them both out. We'll see if the traffic in LA gives me road rage. OC freeways are packed but as I listen to the radio in the morning, I'm thankful for traveling in OC. The LA freeways always seem to have accidents.

The area where I will be working is near the new hotspot LA Live. Right next to Staples Center and Nokia Center. So, this is a new up and coming area and I'm excited to be a part of it.

I don't really go to LA very often. I'm sure now that I will be working there, I will be able to explore a little bit more. Restaurants, shopping, things to do, etc. I will definitely let you know what I find!